Lamborghini unveils the self-healing supercar of the future

Padraic Flanagan

Italian luxury carmaker Lamborghini has unveiled its latest vision of the future of motoring – an all-electric, self-driving supercar that can heal itself.

The Italian marque’s designers have teamed up with the Massachusetts Institute of Technology to come up with its Terzo Millennio, or Third Millennium, car of the future.

The vehicle is the product of the first 12 months of a three-year partnership between the car manufacturer and MIT, which was tasked with “rewriting the rules on super sports cars”.

True to Lamborghini tradition, the car has a lean, windswept design and the brand’s trademark Y taillights. But the most remarkable aspects of the car are hidden from view.

Power

The Millennio plans to do away with normal batteries, with MIT instead looking into the use of supercapacitors, that would allow each vehicle to generate its own power and suffer limited degradation over the car’s lifetime.

The car – made of carbon fibre – will feature a four-wheel-drive, four-motor setup, with a motor in each wheel. This, says Lamborghini, allows for lots of torque for driving enthusiasts to enjoy.

Lamborghini must always create the dreams of the next generation

Lamborghini and MIT also want the Millennio to self-heal, by automatically detecting cracks and damage in the carbon structure and repairing them via micro channels in the bodywork filled with “healing chemistries”.

“We are inspired by embracing what is impossible today to craft the realities of tomorrow,” Lamborghini boss Stefano Domenicali said at its unveiling at the EmTech conference in Cambridge, Massachusetts. “Lamborghini must always create the dreams of the next generation.”